Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost: I Apologize in Advance for the Selfies.

Today I saw a DOUBLE man bun. (I apologize profusely for not having a camera or phone handy). But yeah, I guess you could say things are picking up here in Romania.

This weekend we took a van out into the countryside to visit a fortress built in the 14th century along with a few monasteries. I'm not really sure how to begin-- there was just so much beauty packed into that one day.

The fortress is called Cetatea Neamț, and it was so so impressive. I studied a lot of ancient cultures in my humanities classes this past school year, but it is completely different standing in the stone courtyard, looking over the landscape from the lookout, standing in the dining hall.

I don't think pictures or words can really do any of the sites justice, but I'm going to try my best by using both.

Apparently the region where the fortress is built used to be called Moldavia, and apparently the Moldavians really liked having torture pits/prison holes. Every room (in addition to the courtyard and the area just outside the entrance) had a deep pit which, our tour guide graciously explained, was used for either housing prisoners to starve/freeze, be eaten by rats, torn apart by lions, etc. sounds pretty glamorous, right?

Basically Romania used to be terrifying. I now feel less upset by the fact that people on the street just glare at us as we walk down the streets. They've toned things down apparently so I should just be grateful.

So we spent a while at the fortress, exploring and taking pictures of everything and everyone. I think we are all still in the mindset that this is a vacation. It hasn't even really hit me that we are actually LIVING here for the summer. I don't know if it's going to hit me until I'm back at home. I really hope that's not the case, because I REALLY want to live in the moment. I've never been very good at that and that's one skill I really want to develop to make my life more fulfilling.

Pretty sure that sign says something along the lines of "no climbing--stay off." Too bad I don't know how to read Romanian!

We drove a bit to visit the different monasteries, and they were beautiful! A different kind of beauty than the fortress. The artwork inside was amazing! So so cool. Ah. We were pretty sure that no pictures were allowed inside the churches... But we saw a couple others outside our group taking pictures with their flash on even, so we decided we could take some sneaky pics. You're welcome.

The overall impression that I took away from this weekend trip was just a feeling of wonder. But, surprisingly, it wasn't based on the fortress or the monasteries, or any of the sites we were planning on visiting. Nope. It was the landscape. The nature. The views! I cannot put into words how beautiful everything became as we drove farther and farther from the city.

It's funny that we drove so far to look at some beautiful buildings intended to worship God, but they cannot come CLOSE to the beauty that He created for us in this world. I just really hope I get to see more of the countryside. Romania is beautiful, guys. I can't say it enough.

Sunday was an interesting day. Our program director is in Europe visiting the different groups of volunteers in their host cities, and he was planning on meeting us at noon, which is two hours into the three hour block of church we attend on Sunday's. Through what turned out to be a fortunate misunderstanding, the rest of our group was told to come home early so we could meet him on time. One of my roommates and I were not informed and thought people wanted to leave early just as a preparatory action and because some of them were sick (those dang adorable kiddos with their Romanian germs!).

So we stayed for the last two hours and everyone else left at 11. I think God knew I needed some extra church that day. We ended up just sitting upstairs and reading the Book of Mormon on our own and playing some hymns until the third hour when the sister missionaries could translate Relief a Society for us. Weirdly, I felt so much more uplifted after church than I expected. As it turns out, our director didn't make it til 3 that afternoon, so I was thankful for the misunderstanding. Because I can already tell how emotionally and physically exhausting these next three months are going to be. And I'm going to need all the spiritual rejuvenation I can get.

Today was my first full day in my assigned room at the orphanage. I'm working in a room with a pretty broad range of children. Most of them have some degree of brain paralysis as well as Down syndrome, blindness, spasticity, and other factors that make movement or communication or cognitive understanding difficult. There are a LOT of kids in that one room. It was pretty exhausting, because some kids need constant attention to prevent them from getting into trouble and others don't seem to ever get enough attention. It is pretty heart wrenching to think how without the volunteers, the children get even LESS attention.

There is one boy in the group that I could not stop thinking about over the weekend when I was waiting to hear my assignment. His name for the sake of this blog will be Xavier. He is 17. He can understand everything being said/done around him, but he has very little control over his movements. Sometimes he can be spastic, but usually from the next down he has no movement. The first day I saw him, though, I knew I wanted to work with him. He has the most AMAZING smile. There is a little boy in him that just wants to play and be able to communicate to others.

Today I got to work with him. And man oh man is there life in that boy. I mentioned that he understands everything being said to him. Well, that's not true when an American girl knows only 3 or 4 Romanian phrases. So I couldn't say much to him in his language, and he couldn't say anything back. But that didn't stop Xavier.

I tried a few times to entertain him with toys or just talking to him. After a little while, we developed a way of communicating involving his eyes, his smile, and my dad attempts at miming. He pointed with his eyes! At the toy shelf to get certain toys. And then at every person and object and part of the room that he wanted me to use the toy on. It got PRETTY repetitive haha. But boy did he love it. It wasn't so much that I was doing anything that entertaining as much as the fact that we were communicating! At least that's what I think. With his limited head motion for a "no" and his happy smile for "yes" and his masterful use of his eyes, we had a blast.

There wasn't much down time after the orphanage before my part of the group began the trek to the hospital. We found quite a few children this time! First we found a 3 month old baby without a mom attending him. We weren't sure if he was a patient without a mom or if the mom was a patient, and the baby just was being kept elsewhere in the meantime. We held him for a while before moving upstairs to see who else needed some attention. The nurses directed us to two children in the same room. My partner held the baby in that room while I played with the adorable little girl who was about 5 or 6.

Soon gypsy woman and two men came in. Turns out the baby was hers, and she ended up attending the baby instead. We think she and her family thought we were nurses because she didn't seem weirded out by two strangers holding her baby. But as she held her baby, she began to sob. The baby was visibly unhealthy, so that's most likely what she was upset about. But things got weirder.

When the nurse came in, the mom was speaking to her and was visibly upset. At one point the mom tried to slip the nurse some money, and he nurse Adamantly refused. My partner and I tried to focus on the little girl instead, which wasn't hard, because she was ADORABLE and so fun. But my heart went out to the mom. I can't imagine the pain that would come with your child suffering.

Things didn't get easier. The little girl loved playing with us. She definitely did not get enough attention during the days there. When we had to leave, she just kept saying "no no!" It was the hardest thing I've had to do so far. I just wanted to stay all day and never leave her alone. I felt like I was abandoning her. Ah. I need to not get so attached. This summer will be extremely difficult. I hope she's there on Wednesday when I go back. I mean, I want her to be better soon. But I don't know where she goes after that. To an orphanage? Back to a family? Friends? No one? I hate not knowing. A child that sweet deserves to be loved.

Okay things are getting emotional on my end here. So I'm going to end with a couple happy notes.

I saw an old man in the chess park catch a pigeon today. (Side note: it is illegal to kick or harm a pigeon in Iasi. Probably in Romania. There are a ton of them everywhere.) but yeah, he just picked one up, slowly made his way back to the bench, plopped down and then...wait for it... Began kissing the pigeon. Nothing revolting, (assuming that you're not revolted by humans kissing birds), but he just gave the pigeon a peck. HA! GET IT? Puns. But really he kissed that bird's head over and over and over. Romania is silly. PDA is the norm, even between different species.

Milka bar tally: working on number 7 currently. I slowed down a bit, because I haven't had time to run to the store. But don't worry- I'm prepared for this week.

Well... At least for the next few days.

While we're talking about food, I'll include a couple pictures of my masterpieces I created from this rice side dish they give us a lot. I'm not really sure what it is. Kind of creamy and there are orange colored pieces of something in it... But they're not carrots. Anywho, I got bored of it and decided to make art before eating it.